To win the game, the player must break a curse created by the Devil, who visits the king across several reigns.

Developer François Alliot managed the writing, which was influenced by the Oulipo French literary movement.

[2] For example, the player can provide assistance to a witch to fill the meter representing the people, at the cost of the church's power.

[3] To win the game, the player must find a way to break a curse created by the Devil, who visits the monarch over several centuries; if the player does not find a way to break the curse before the Devil stops his visits, the game resets.

[3] The player character, an unnamed King appearing to be suffering from memory loss, meets a ghost called the Spirit of the Fallen.

The Devil arrives in 1998 and casts an enchantment on the King as a "parting gift" before disappearing forever, causing the next person to whom he says "Yes" to suffer a gruesome death.

If the player uses the curse on the Spirit of the Fallen, the Devil reveals that the ghost is a reflection of the King's own soul and memories, and condemns the monarch to spiritual death by sending him to Hell.

If the player uses the curse on any other mortal character, the spirit remarks that the cycle will never end and the King becomes trapped forever.

[5] The company's associate Nigel Lowrie enjoyed the game's demo, presented it to the rest of the staff,[6] and Devolver Digital arranged a publishing deal with Nerial.

He introduced several subplots that ran parallel with the main narrative, and said that the writing of the cards was formatted to be a "short direct question, quick snappy answer, dire consequences".

[6] The plot centered on the Devil was introduced near the end, as Alliot needed a reason to explain why the characters repeated their dialogue, and to justify why the player would continue as a new king.

[1][3] TouchArcade found its gameplay to be interesting and inventive,[3] and Pocket Gamer said that it was "a clever subversion of strategy and casual mobile play that makes you laugh, cry, and think".

Rock Paper Shotgun said that it forced the player to alter their approach to rulership, as it changed him from being an idealist who wanted to make moral decisions, to a pragmatic monarch who would work to stay in power.

TouchArcade praised the cards as a way to make the player feel like they were working to a larger goal through simple decisions.

[4] The Guardian felt that the simple controls with the cards was well-suited for mobile gameplay, but added that the binary style of the decisions limited the game's depth.

[2] In contrast, Rock Paper Shotgun said that Reigns did not feel repetitive despite its simple controls, as there were enough new cards being added that made the game fun.

[25] A fourth installment called Reigns: Beyond was released for Apple Arcade on November 6, 2020, and for Windows and Nintendo Switch on April 17, 2024.